Tether has announced a $150 million strategic investment in Gold.com, marking a significant step in its broader effort to connect digital asset infrastructure with real world commodities. The transaction gives Tether a minority ownership stake of roughly 12 percent in the precious metals platform and establishes a long term collaboration aimed at expanding access to both tokenized and physical gold across global markets.
The investment was made through Tether Investments and reflects a deliberate shift toward building durable financial infrastructure rather than pursuing short term market opportunities. As part of the partnership, Tether plans to integrate its gold backed digital asset XAU₮ into Gold.com’s platform, enabling users to access tokenized gold alongside traditional precious metals products. The companies are also exploring ways for customers to purchase physical gold using digital currencies such as USD₮ and USA₮, subject to regulatory and technical approvals.
The announcement comes at a time of renewed strength in global gold markets. Prices have recently surged past the $5,000 per ounce level, reinforcing gold’s appeal as a store of value amid persistent macroeconomic uncertainty, elevated inflation risks, and geopolitical tensions. Against this backdrop, demand for on chain representations of safe haven assets has accelerated sharply.
Over the past year, the gold backed stablecoin market has nearly tripled in size, growing from about $1.3 billion to more than $5.5 billion. This expansion has been driven by record gold prices and increased interest from investors seeking stability within blockchain based financial systems. XAU₮ currently accounts for more than 60 percent of the total market capitalization of gold backed digital assets, positioning it as the dominant product in the segment.
Tether Gold is issued under El Salvador’s Digital Asset Issuance Law and is backed one to one by physical gold held in secure vaults. According to Tether, approximately 140 tonnes of gold support the outstanding supply of XAU₮. Each token represents one fine troy ounce of gold and is linked to a specific London Good Delivery bar, with serial numbers, weight, and purity recorded for transparency. A recent independent attestation confirmed that all issued tokens remain fully backed by allocated physical gold.
By partnering with an established precious metals platform, Tether aims to extend tokenized gold beyond crypto native users and into mainstream commerce. The integration is expected to make it easier for individuals and institutions to hold, transfer, and redeem gold digitally while maintaining direct ownership of the underlying asset. For Tether, gold is positioned not as a speculative trade but as a long term allocation designed to preserve value across economic cycles.
Paolo Ardoino, chief executive of Tether, said the investment reflects a belief that gold should be as accessible and transferable as modern digital money without compromising physical backing. He emphasized that combining gold’s historical resilience with blockchain settlement offers users greater flexibility in an increasingly uncertain global environment.
As adoption of blockchain based assets continues to grow among asset managers and sovereign participants, tokenized gold is emerging as a core real world asset category. The partnership between Tether and Gold.com underscores a broader trend of integrating digital finance with trusted physical assets, signaling a continued push toward hybrid financial models that bridge traditional and on chain markets.
